Surface waves are the third type of wave. These are the waves that produce the most destruction. They originate from the arrival of P and S waves at the surface. They are much slower than both P and S waves. Surface waves are limited to travel along only the surface of the Earth, just as waves in a body of water are limited to travel along only the surface of the water.
There are two types of surface waves: Love waves and Rayleigh waves. Love waves move in a manner very similar to S waves but the movement to objects in it's path is side to side instead of up and down. Rayleigh waves travel much in the same way as waves in water. Rayleigh waves have an almost circular pattern to its wave motion.
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